Why location of your outsourcing operation is important

One of the first questions you’ll have to answer when starting your outsourcing process is where to place your team. For many people IT outsourcing is associated with certain countries like India or lately China. While those two countries are clearly leaders in providing IT services to US based companies they are not the only choices.

When selecting a location most people are considering primarily two factors: cost and availability of talent. Unfortunately many forget the most important part – cultural fit. If you are building a team for long term and plan to work with them on a regular basis you can’t overlook the most important skill – personality.

Cultural fit is not only how you are able to communicate with your employees and if you are able to crack jokes with them. It’s also their way of asking questions and their approach to solving problems.

There is no answer that would fit all. Are you looking for a team of followers that will simply take your documentation and implement it verbatim or are you looking for talent that will question your decisions and attempt to improve on them? The flip side of it comes in management. Are you willing to spend time explaining your goals and objectives or are you interested in others simply following your lead?

This article is not an attempt to analyze various cultures of the world (that might come later). This is rather an attempt to indicate that your outsourcing team’s performance will depend on it’s location.

Another important factor is if you are building a project based team (set duration set objectives) or are you expanding your existing team and trying to make outsourcing its extension.

I would break the world in the following outsourcing categories: Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, Middle East. Each come with its advantages and challenges. Each can work for some and fail miserably for others. The key is to identify values that are important and build around it.